Inquilabstani Economy
The Inquilabstani economy is run by the Ministries of Industry, Service, Agriculture, and Finance. Though ultimately owned by the state, companies are collectively managed by the employees themselves. Major industrial products include fishing, steel and heavy engineering, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, lumber, mining, and defense industry. While the five year plan system exists, it does not amount to centralization. The economy is entirely self sufficient and is based in decentralization in the communes and towns, with cities largely playing an administrative role, or supplying specialized goods. Economic Planning and Management Based on a system of state ownership, the Inquilabstani economy is managed through the State Planning Commission, the State Bank and the State Commission for Materials and Equipment Supply. Beginning in 1929, the economy has been directed by a series of five-year plans. For every enterprise, planning departments define the mix of economic inputs, a schedule for completion, all wholesale prices and almost all retail prices. The planning process is based around material balances - balancing economic inputs with planned output targets for the planning period. Although nominally a "centrally-planned" economy, in reality formulation of the plan takes place on a more local level of the production process. Most information in the PSRI economy flows from the bottom up. There are several mechanisms in place for producers and consumers to provide input and information that would help in the drafting of economic plans. A complex system of planning arrangements had developed since the introduction of the first five-year plan in 1929. The five-year plan integrates short-range planning into a longer time frame. Although the five-year plan is enacted into law, it contains a series of guidelines rather than a set of direct orders. Periods covered by the five-year plans coincided with those covered by the gatherings of the CPI Party Congress. At each CPI Congress, the party leadership presents the targets for the next five-year plan. Thus, each plan has the approval of the most authoritative body of the country's leading political institution. After the approval at the congress, the list of priorities for the five-year plan is processed by the Council of Ministers, which constitutes the government of the PSRI. The Council of Ministers is composed of industrial ministers, chairmen of various state committees, and chairmen of agencies with ministerial status. This committee stands at the apex of the vast economic administration, including the state planning apparatus, the industrial ministries, the trusts (the intermediate level between the ministries and the enterprises), and finally, the state enterprises. The Council of Ministers elaboratees on Politburo plan targets and sends them to the Planning Commission, which gathered data on plan fulfillment. The review, revision, and approval of the five-year plan is followed by another upward flow of information, this time with the amended and final plans containing the specific targets for each sector of the economy. Implementation begins at this point, and is largely the responsibility of enterprise managers. The national state budget was prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the PSRI by negotiating with its all-Union local organizations. With the exception of a recession in the mid-1960s, and the effects of reconstruction of the liberated Hindustan in the 80s, the country's economy has done quite well. Unemployment is low and the education level of the work force have steadily increased. Inquilabstani companies have carried out construction of numerous major infrastructural and industrial projects in allied socialist states. Decentralization of Production One of the hallmarks of the socialist economy is its promise of employment to all able and willing to work and job-security with virtually lifelong tenure. The commune, the basic aspect of all life is a village with one collective farm, industrial workshop, a local health center, and the commune school. With the exception of electronics and heavy machinery, the communes are self sufficient. The communes also take decisions independently in regards to administration and the use of funding. Towns are very much the same but with more specialized facilities and one larger factory catering to the district. Collective farms themselves are unique, in being made up of smaller plots, jointly owned, and managed, with collective equipment. Each plot is assigned to a working group, which is responsible for the year's production. In the early 1950s, under Nehru, the economy was reorganized according to Rajesh Premchand's theory of labor, in which the right to decision-making of worker-run companies is based on the reformed soviet for all workers as well as management advisers, as opposed to the central management commissions. In this new format, independent unions would elect members to represent the workers in the District Worker's Soviets to assist those elected by the individual company Soviet. In order to give all employees the same access to decision-making, the basic organisations of associated labor were also applied to public services, including health and education. The basic organizations were usually made up of no more than a few dozen people and had their own workers' councils, whose assent was needed for strategic decisions and appointment of managers in enterprises or public institutions. Agriculture is organized into a system of Inquilabstani style collective farms and state farms, as opposed to the massive Soviet-style collective farms. Organized on a large scale and highly mechanized, the agricultural sector regularly produces surplus. Land in rural areas is allotted for housing and some sustenance farming, and persons have certain rights to it, but it is not their property in full. Largely self-sufficient, the PSRI trades little in comparison to its economic strength. However, trade with non-communist countries increased in the 1990s as the government sought to increase supply of foreign currency. The Inquilabstani currency became non-convertible after 1932 until the late eighties. It is impossible (both for citizens and state-owned businesses) to freely buy or sell foreign currency even though the "exchange rate" is set and published regularly. Overall, the banking system was highly centralized and fully controlled by the single state-owned National Bank, responsive to the fulfillment of the government's economic plans. Most financial institutions are state owned with the National Bank being the only bank in the country. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the central government's revenues derived chiefly from the profits of the state enterprises, which were remitted to the state. Some government revenues also come from taxes, of which the most important is the general industrial and commercial tax. In addition, personal income and value-added taxes were implemented at that time. Private enterprises are small scale and almost exclusively service oriented, and usually include family stores, restaurants, and artisan's workshops. There are two basic forms of property in Inquilabstan: individual property and collective property. These differed greatly in their content and legal status. Ownership and Property According to communist theory, capital (means of production) should not be individually owned, with certain negligible exceptions. Land in rural areas is allotted for housing and some sustenance farming, and persons have certain rights to it, but it is not their property in full. In particular, in cooperative farms, there is a practice to rotate individual farming lots with collective lots. This results in situations where people ameliorate, till and cultivate their lots carefully, adapting them to small-scale farming, and in 5–7 years those lots would be swapped for other ones. To distinguish "capitalist" and "socialist" types of property ownership further, two different forms of individual property are recognized: private property and personal property. The former encompassed capital (means of production), while the latter described everything else in a person's possession. There are several forms of collective ownership, the most significant being state property and cooperative property. The most common forms of cooperative property are housing cooperatives in urban areas, consumer cooperatives, and rural consumer societies. International Trade Seeking to establish true autonomy for itself and allied nations, the PSRI and its fraternal nations seek to minimize imports to the greatest extent possible. All foriegn traders must register with the Bureau of Trade for an Import or Export lisence. Lisences may be denied for such reasons as suspicions regarding the prior activities of the firm, trade in prohibited goods, and political reasons. Nevertheless, the PSRI still engages in trade with many Capitalist and Royalist nations, whic remains a source of fierce internal political debate. With the establishment of a Import or Export lisence with the Bureau of Trade, a trader may then negotiate to establish an agreement regarding the quantity of goods traded, the price so fixed for them, and the time period over which such is valid. With internal pricing set by the government, Rupees are not suited to be used in international trade. Instead, the PSRI utilizes its its reserves of foriegn currency to conduct trade.